Thapar varsity can't deny quota to Punjab students: Sukhbir

Punjab deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal on Monday took strong exception to the move of Thapar University to amend rules to deny admission quota to students of Punjab in the engineering and polytechnic college without prior permission from the state government.

In a statement here, the deputy chief minister said that Thapar University at Patiala, earlier known as Thapar Technology Campus, was allotted 250 acres of prime land at a highly concessional rate by the Punjab government in 1956 with a singular aim of providing quality technical education to the students of the state.

He said that now the Thapar University cannot be allowed to tweak rules, regulations and guidelines to deny legitimate admission quota without taking the permission of the state government.

The deputy CM said that the Punjab government would not allow Thapar University to deviate from the basic philosophy of educating students of Punjab for which the state government had allotted land to it.

Seeking a complete report from the technical education department regarding Thapar University, Sukhbir issued directions that the department take all preventive, corrective, legislative and legal measures to stop the varsity from denying legitimate admission quota to state students.

He also said that chief minister Parkash Singh Badal had already sought intervention of Union human resource development minister Kapil Sibal on the issue and both of them would soon call on Sibal to put a stop to the "mischief" of Thapar University.

Thapar university is a deemed university controlled by the Centre under the UGC guidelines. The university officials had recently maintained that it was not opposed to denying quota to students from Punjab.